Thomas Clarke, from Fallowfield celebrated his 85th birthday recently by officiating a game between two amateur teams at Chorlton's Hough End pitches.

And Thomas, of Finchley Road, said he won't be ready to hang up his whistle for some time.

He said: "I've always loved sport and I'm going to carry on for as long as I can. There's no hassle because I don't impose myself on the players and I just speak to them as if they were my own sons.

"I tell them straight if they are breaking the laws of the game. You have got to obey the law - I'm the judge and jury and they will be sentenced. What you don't do is lose your temper and come down to their level."

Every Wednesday Thomas rolls back the years overseeing Manchester Metropolitan University's 1st XI home games at Hough End Fields.

And it doesn't stop there, as weekends find him taking charge in the Manchester Accountants' League games. He added: "It shows everybody that all people are not the same. Some people have a negative view of people once they retire. I could have just sat down in the pub and felt sorry for myself but that's wrong."

Thomas puts his remarkable fitness down to the conditioning gained in his youth as a boxer on the East End circuit during the Second World War, where he raised spirits fighting to packed houses.

It also allows him to keep any youngsters in check when things get heated on the pitch.

Thomas began refereeing in the 1960s, behind Old Trafford stadium, when he stepped in as a favour to a pal.

A television show once featured one of his games and he was complemented by none other than Manchester United legend, Mark Hughes.

He is father to eight children and Thomas says their response as he trots out on an icy Manchester morning is: "Dad, you're a mad man'.